Pat Metheny @ Mahaiwe

Pat Metheny is no stranger to adventure. In addition to his more mainstream efforts, the popular jazz guitarist has veered from new-agey solo explorations and quiet duos with pianist Brad Mehldau to beautiful skronk with saxophonist Ornette Coleman and the truly challenging noise attack of 1992’s “Zero Tolerance for Silence.”

But his latest effort ups the ante even further.

On Sunday, Metheny will bring the Orchestrion Project to Great Barrington’s Mahaiwe Theater as part of a ground-breaking tour solo that mixes technology very old and very new.

Orchestrions, popular in the early 20th century, were wild contraptions — amped-up kin to player pianos — that often married pipe organs with percussion in a pneumatically driven music machine.

Metheny’s mongrel, however, encompasses solenoid-driven robots that pluck the strings of basses and guitars, blow air over water-filled bottles, bang cymbals, thump drums and so much more. It would take a new Dr. Seuss to accurately describe the goings-on.

The result, however, is highly musical, with Metheny controlling every aspect of the custom-made music-making machines through his guitar.

Metheny, is, to say the least very excited about Orchestrion.

Here are a few of his thoughts:

Q: How is playing with the Orchestrion different than playing with fellow musicians?

A: This is such a unique project in every way that I can’t really compare it to anything else. It is kind of 360 degrees experience for me, in that I am responsible for every aspect of every note of it all, whether improvised or written. That is often largely true by degrees in other situations as well where I am the leader, but because I am functioning as a kind of multi-instrumentalist in this environment, it challenges me on many other levels.

Q: In addition to looking into Orchestrions of the past, did you do any research into one-man bands, e.g. Jesse “The Lone Cat” Fuller and his fotdella-guitar-harmonica-kazoo-cymbal combination?

A: No, I would say that it pretty much has nothing to do with any of the things like that that might get mentioned. Although the “solo concert” nature of this is in fact a pretty big part of the appeal for me, so is the fact that it really is something that has never been done before. You couldn’t really compare it with anything and that has proven to be one of the best aspects of for me. I really had to invent a language for it without really any precedents to look to.

Q: How is the programming done — in terms of interfacing the guitar with the control of the other instruments — and have you done all of that on your own?

A: It is very complex, and yes, I did it all on my own — again, that being a big part of the fun of it for me. I can’t imagine delegating that out to someone else to do.

Q: Were there any instruments you wanted to adapt for the Orchestrion but couldn’t?

A: Actually, I would love to do a version 2.0 at some point. I learned so much getting this far and have met some other inventors besides the guys I already know that are also doing great things that I would love to integrate into what I already have going.

Q: Taking this project on the road must be nearly prohibitive — how is your crew different than it might be for a band tour?

A: I have done a lot of complicated tours with complicated setups over the years and have put together a crew that is really exceptional at pulling these kinds of productions off technically on a nightly basis. We are all pretty used to it. In the end, it really isn’t all that different on a production level from playing a trio gig or a concert with my regular group.

Q: It seems that, given today’s technology, much of what you’re attempting with the Orchestrion could be created in a virtual environment. Please talk about why you chose to marry old and new technology to create the music in a physical environment.

A: These are real instruments actually playing. There is no comparison with samples or synths coming out of speaker cabinets in terms of complexity, sound detail and the infinity of things that makes what happens when air molecules are being moved around in a room different from pre-recorded audio clips. The concept of “virtual environment” is very 1990s to me, and not a great technology at that for music making.

Q: In some ways, the Orchestrion Project seems like a mad marriage of Gyro Gearloose and composer/instrument-maker Harry Partch — is that a fair assumption?

A: That probably describes more things about you and your take on the whole than mine, but I have heard weirder descriptions along the way at this point, believe me!

Q: Do you imagine expanding the project to mix other live musicians with the Orchestrion?

One Response

Having seen Metheny in all sorts of settings, from a trio playing in front of dozens at the Van Dyck to the group headlining the Montreal Jazz Festival, I can only what this latest incarnation must be like on stage. I can’t make it to this show. Damn.
If anyone goes, write a comment and let us know how it was.